Help with first all grain setup

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D-west

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Location
Bellingham
Experienced cider and wine maker.

I dove in last week and bought myself an early Christmas present to kick things off in the beer world. 15gal Keggle, 3 ports.

2 20gal stainless pots. are free, used in a factory for a couple of years, they were used to heat honey for packaging, they are going out of business and I snagged them for some hard cider, and beer as soon as I am up and running! First time ive paid for something in alcohol, haha!

The system will be gravity feed for now. Any recommendation on cheap shelving?

Id like to go electric if the kettles turn out to work.

Still building all of this in my head and have a few questions I cant seem to get past.

Id want to do 10gal batches.

Before I knew about the free kettles (SCORE!!) , I was going to go with a cooler for a mash tun. (still might if these kettles do not work for me)

Which would serve the best purpose for a mash tun? Keggle or 20gal kettle?
 
I'd use the 20g kettle for a mash tun, assuming you could find a false bottom that would work. Otherwise, you're going to need a manifold of some kind. If you're. Direct during you won't have to worry about heat loss, but maintaining mash temp is a problem without good insulation or recirculation on a stainless mash tun from my experience. The cooler is a very popular option if you don't want to make the insulation for you metal tun. I saw a good article in byo about using expanding foam with foil wrapped around to it doesn't adhere to your pot.
 
If you went BIAB you'd only need a bag to be all set to do 10G batches in the 20G kettles right now.
 
So for all gravity you will need to insulate your mash tun. I did a cooler before I got a pump and it worked fine. I'd be leery of insulating a kettle although I see lots of people do it. I am thinking it would be a PITA to clean, end of my brew session I dump the grain into a plastic bag and hose the MT out using my cooling water. I guess you could take the insulation off before cleaning. I also have my MT fairly close to my BK and HLT. Actually in between them. If I am heating either of these I am sure the insulation would get too much direct heat so if you go that way make sure to design enough space to protect. TBH if you want to go insulated MT to avoid adding heat and recirculating during the mash I think a good cooler like the 77 quart Coleman Extreme is a better way to go than a kettle.

I suggest you go with your kettles and go ahead and get a pump. You will be happy trust me.

Then set up a kettle mash tun with a full false bottom. I got one from Norcal and have been very happy with it. Recirculate your wort during the entire mash using the pump. You will need a valve and a pick up tube at the bottom and a valve at the top along with your choice of sparge arm. I used the loc-line from Bobby M at Brewers Hardware for a long time but recently switched to a Blichman Autosparge to avoid having to balance flow rates during sparge manually. Either works great during recirculation and good enough for me during sparging (you could argue sparging might benifit slightly from some sort of spray arm but I doubt it is worth enough increased efficiency at my scale to justify).

There are a lot of choices for adding back the lost heat once you are circulating including at least

Direct fire
Electric RIMS tube
Herms coil in your HLT

Any of these can be run manually or automated. I started with manual direct fire. I run on household natural gas and put a burner (the small one) under the MT and found if I ran a very very low flame with constant recirculation I could hold temp within about 2F turning the burner off and on about every 10 min during the mash.

This was a just a little tedious when brewing with friends because mash time is a nice time to socialize and taste a beer or two. The very low flame had a tendency to blow out or if you got distracted might overheat. So I got a solenoid valve and a pilot light and built a controller to turn that valve on and off based on temperature of the wort in the recirculation line. Designed it pretty much as a copy of the the Blichman Tower of Power, by the time it was done I probably spent $300 so not a huge savings vs the ToP and was a lot of work figuring out how to do it and putting it all together. But this is a hobby and I enjoyed the work so am considering the invested time a plus. It is still magical watching it turn the flame on and off during a brew session.

Direct fire works very well. I probably do get a bit of caramelization/darkening of the wort but I guess I account for this in my recipe design. I'd say the Herms or RIMS systems which seemed to me at the beginning of the process to be more complicated than direct fire do have a significant advantage I had not considered. Automating an electric system like a RIMS might be much easier than the solenoid valve and pilot light control I had to deal with. For the MT an electric RIMS system may be easiest way to go although if I built a new system today I'd be leaning towards HERMs.

Good luck to you! Also I'd use the 20g pots as the brew kettle and mash tuns. Right now I do 10gal HLT, 15gal MT, 15 gal BK and wish each of these was a bit larger for 11 gallon in to the fermenter batches. It works but would be a little more comfortable with some extra volume.
 
Keggle is usually cheaper, but might require some extra insulation because kettles usually have a thicker bottom.
If you have money to spare go for a kettle mash tun. If you have a keggle and you're good at DIY projects by all means go with the keggle.
Just know that kettles are easier to clean afterwards. And keggles tend to get VERY hot when using them as a mash tun, kettles usually have handles which makes them easier to move.
In the end it's personal preference.
 
Wow. Thanks for the replies! So it sounds like I should bite the bullet and get a pump. Then I wouldn't have to worry about a shelf... Hmm. Ok.

Sounds like using the keggle for the HLT is the way to go and the kettles for the mash and boil.

Can anyone recommend a pump?
 
If you went BIAB you'd only need a bag to be all set to do 10G batches in the 20G kettles right now.

Slow down there! I have no heat source and haven't decided on a method yet :)

I have done BIAB on my stove for a small batch, not a fan.
 
Keggle is usually cheaper, but might require some extra insulation because kettles usually have a thicker bottom.
If you have money to spare go for a kettle mash tun. If you have a keggle and you're good at DIY projects by all means go with the keggle.
Just know that kettles are easier to clean afterwards. And keggles tend to get VERY hot when using them as a mash tun, kettles usually have handles which makes them easier to move.
In the end it's personal preference.

I already have a keggle with welded fittings, and 2 20gal kettles.

Based on the advice from everyone so far, my best bet is to use the keggle for my HLT and the kettles for my MT and BK.
 
$5 A/V stand from an auction house, 2 10' pieces of uni-rail form Menards, scrap lumber, some stainless bolts, 2 cans primer and 2 cans spray paint... with the 3 burners I have $200 total in this build! Tanks not included because I use them on other things also! Also 2 pieces of shelf rail and 4 standards...

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Go surf your local used office supply to see what they have, or the junkyard! Stand I built onto was rough!

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Thanks MaryB!

I got the kettles, both the same. I dont think they will work. What do you all think?

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Looks like I can salvage the heating element with manual control box, its a 1500w.
 
Those kettles look pretty cool. I would not immediately give up on being able to sue them as BK and MLT. When I built my kettles I bought new kettles and drilled holes in them and installed weldless fittings. Welded fittings like those kettles have was an upgrade I decided not to pay for and you have them for free...
 
Soo.... This is becoming quite the addiction...

I got another keggle...! Merry Christmas to me.

I got everything welded in, and made the top 13" so I can get a nice big false bottom in it to use as a MLT. Also got some Reflectix insulation from work for free. I have about 100sq ft.

Now all I need is one more keggle for a BK. I have a lead on one, just waiting for a reply.

I might play around with the honey kettles later, but I have better equipment as is with my Keggles. I am going to steal the heating element and controller out of the free kettle and see if I can make a RIMS system out of it.

Next question.

I cant find a good DIY write up on making a sight glass for the keggles. Can someone point me in the right direction?

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As I posted the pic, I realized I might have a lid for the 13" opening... long shot but just maybe my WOK lid fit? ... like a glove...

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I don't usually bother to install a sight glass but I think this video explains it pretty well.
 
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I got half way and I couldn't watch it anymore. I am too OCD for this guy, lol.
Thank you though, gives me some good ideas, I am just going to buy the one on BH.
 
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